Frankenstein in popular culture
as Frankenstein's monster in Bride of Frankenstein.]] Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, and the famous character of Frankenstein's monster have influenced popular culture for at least 100 years. The work has inspired numerous films, television programs, video games and derivative works. The character of the monster remains one of the most recognized icons in horror fiction. Film derivatives Silent era The first film adaptation of the tale, Frankenstein, was done by Edison Studios in 1910, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley, with Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Mary Fuerte as Elizabeth, and Charles Ogle as the Monster. The brief (16 min.) story has Frankenstein chemically create his creature in a vat. The monster haunts the scientist until Frankenstein's wedding night, when true love causes the creature to vanish. For many years, this film was believed lost. A collector announced in 1980 that he had acquired a print in the 1950s and had been unaware of its rarity. The Edison version was followed soon after by another adaptation entitled Life Without Soul (1915), directed by Joseph W. Smiley, starring William A. Cohill as Dr. William Frawley, a modern-day Frankenstein who creates a soulless man, played to much critical praise by Percy Standing, who wore little make-up in the role. The film was shot at various locations around the United States, and reputedly featured much spectacle. In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley's novel. This film is now considered a lost film. There was also at least one European film version, the Italian Il Mostro di Frankenstein ("The Monster of Frankenstein") in 1921. The film's producer Luciano Albertini essayed the role of Frankenstein, with the creature being played by Umberto Guarracino, and Eugenio Testa directing from a screenplay by Giovanni Drivetti. The film is also now considered a lost film. Universal Pictures :See also Universal Monsters The most famous adaptation of the story, 1931's Frankenstein, was produced by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale, and starred Boris Karloff as the monster. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), was also directed by Whale and is probably the most critically acclaimed of all the Universal horror films. It was followed by Son of Frankenstein in 1939 and The Ghost of Frankenstein in 1942. The latter film marked the series' descent into B movie territory; later efforts by Universal combined two or more monsters, culminating in the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The Universal films in which The Monster appears (and the actors who played him) are: # Frankenstein (1931 - Boris Karloff) # Bride of Frankenstein (1935 - Karloff) # Son of Frankenstein (1939 - Karloff) # The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942 - Lon Chaney, Jr.) # Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943 - Béla Lugosi, with Eddie Parker, Gil Perkins, and a possible third stuntman often doubling) # House of Frankenstein (1944 - Glenn Strange) # House of Dracula (1945 - Strange) # Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948 - Strange). Hammer Films In Great Britain, a long-running series by Hammer Films focused on the character of Dr. Frankenstein (usually played by Peter Cushing) rather than his monster. Peter Cushing played Dr. Frankenstein in all of the films except for Horror of Frankenstein in which the character was played by Ralph Bates. Cushing also played a creation in Revenge of Frankenstein. David Prowse played two different Monsters. The Hammer films are a series in the loosest sense, since there is only tenuous continuity between the films after the first two (which are carefully connected). Starting with The Evil of Frankenstein, the films are stand-alone stories with occasional vague references to previous films, much the way the James Bond films form a series. In some of the films, the Baron is a kindly, even heroic figure, while in others he is ruthless and cruel, and clearly the villain of the piece. The Hammer Films series (and the actor playing The Creature) consisted of: # The Curse of Frankenstein (1957 - Christopher Lee) # The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958 - two Creatures: Michael Gwynn and Peter Cushing) # The Evil of Frankenstein (1964 - Kiwi Kingston) # Frankenstein Created Woman (1967 - Susan Denberg) # Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969 - Freddie Jones) # The Horror of Frankenstein (1970 - David Prowse) # Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974 - David Prowse) In 1959, Hammer shot a half-hour pilot episode for a TV series to be called Tales of Frankenstein, in association with Columbia Pictures. Anton Diffring played the Baron, and Don Megowan his creation. Curt Siodmak directed. The series was scrapped, largely because of the two companies' disagreement over what the basic thrust of the series would be. Hammer wanted to do a series about Baron Frankenstein involved in various misadventures, while Columbia wanted a series of science fiction stories loosely based around the idea of science gone wrong. Though unshown at the time of its production, the episode is available on DVD from several sources. Other films Depictions of The Monster have varied widely, from mindless killing machines to the depiction of The Monster as a kind of tragic hero (closest to the Shelley version in behavior) in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Bride, and Van Helsing. Throughout the Universal series, he evolves from the latter to the former. Three films have depicted the genesis of the Frankenstein story in 1816: Gothic directed by Ken Russell (1986), Haunted Summer directed by Ivan Passer (1988), and Remando al viento (English title: Rowing with the Wind) directed by Gonzalo Suárez (1988). The opening scene of Bride of Frankenstein also dealt with this event. 1950s & 1960s * 1957: American International Pictures (AIP) released the low-budget I Was a Teenage Frankenstein in November 1957, a few months after their wildly successful I Was a Teenage Werewolf. In a desperate and vain attempt to be viewed as a great scientist, an unscrupulous professor creates a monster out of parts of teenagers killed in a car crash, then later directs his creation to kill a good-looking teenager to replace the monster's disfigured face. Whit Bissell stars as Prof. Frankenstein, Gary Conway plays the creature. A follow-up, How to Make a Monster, was released in July 1958. This film featured actor Gary Conway as an actor playing the Teenage Frankenstein in a film. * 1958: Another wildly differing adaptation is the 1958 film Frankenstein 1970, which focuses on the themes of nuclear power, impotence, and the film industry. Boris Karloff stars as Dr. Frankenstein, who harvests the bodies of actors to create a clone of himself using his nuclear-powered laboratory. His intention is to have this clone carry on his genes into future generations. * 1958: This year also brought the bizarre Frankenstein's Daughter, in which modern descendant of Frankenstein Donald Murphy experiments with a Jekyll/Hyde type of serum before stitching together a grotesque female creature. John Ashley and Sandra Knight co-starred. * 1961: Frankenstein, el Vampiro y Cia ("Frankenstein, the Vampire and Company") was a Mexican remake of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. * 1965: An extremely tangential adaptation is Ishirō Honda's 1965 tokusatsu kaiju film Frankenstein Conquers the World (Furankenshutain tai Chitei Kaijû Baragon), produced by Toho Company Ltd. The film's prologue is set in World War II; the monster's heart is stolen by Nazis from the laboratory of Dr. Reisendorf in war-torn Frankfurt, and taken to Imperial Japan. Immortal, the heart survives the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and is eaten by a savage child survivor, and after discovered by scientists in Present Day Japan, he feeds on protein, eventually growing into a giant humanoid monster that breaks loose and battles the subterranean monster Baragon, which was destroying villages and devouring people and animals. There was also a sequel to this film (see below). * 1965: Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. Martians come to Earth to steal our women, with the goal of repopulating their planet. When they cause a NASA space craft to crash, the pilot (Captain Frank Saunders) becomes horribly disfigured. Becoming a "Frankenstein" like monster, it's up to him to save the women of Earth. * 1966: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Director William Beaudine's Sci-Fi\Western contribution has what would actually be Frankenstein's grand''daughter, Maria Frankenstein, cobbling a monster out of Jesse James' (John Lupton) brawny partner-in-crime, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), after an ambush by the law. Frankenstein renames her creation Igor. Narda Onyx plays Maria Frankenstein. * 1966: ''War of the Gargantuas (Furankenshutain no Kaijû: Sanda tai Gaira), also directed by Honda, is a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World (although this is obscured in the US version), with the Frankenstein Monster's severed cells growing into two giant humanoid brother monsters: Sanda (the Brown Gargantua), the strong and gentle monster raised by scientists in his youth, and Gaira (the Green Gargantua), the violent and savage monster who devours humans. The two monsters eventually battle each other in Tokyo. 1970s & 1980s * 1971: Dracula vs. Frankenstein by Al Adamson is an extremely low-budget horror thriller, starring aged film stars J. Carroll Naish and Lon Chaney Jr. In the film, Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) has the last living descendant of Frankenstein (Naish) revive his famous ancestor's creation (played by John Bloom). * 1971: The Italian La Figlia di Frankenstein ("The Daughter of Frankenstein"), released in North America as Lady Frankenstein. Joseph Cotten plays Baron Frankenstein, who is killed by his creation early in the film. Sara Bay, as the Baron's daughter, creates her own creature from a handsome young man and the brain of her homely but brilliant lover (Paul Muller). * 1972: Jesús Franco contributed Dracula Contra Frankenstein ("Dracula Vs. Frankenstein"), which hit the North American drive-in circuit as Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein. Baron Frankenstein (played by Dennis Price revives Count Dracula (Howard Vernon) in order to enslave an army of vampires to help his monster (Fred Harrison) conquer the world. * 1972: Franco followed up his Dracula/Frankenstein effort with The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (also known as The Curse of Frankenstein, but bearing no relation to the Hammer film). Here, Baron Frankenstein (Dennis Price again) is killed off early on by minions of the evil Count Cagliostro (Howard Vernon), who wants to use the monster in his plots to rule the world. * 1972: Frankenstein 80, a film by Mario Mancini, featured a modern-day scientist named Albrechtstein (Gordon Mitchell) creating a monster called Mosaico (Xiro Papas). Mosaico is driven to homicidal mania by lust, and by his body's constant rejection of its constituent parts. The ingenue was played by Dalila Di Lazzaro (under the pseudonym "Dalila Parker"), who later appeared as the female creation in 1973's Flesh for Frankenstein (see below). * 1973: Blackenstein, a low-budget blaxploitation film. * 1973: Andy Warhol's Flesh for Frankenstein has Udo Kier playing the Baron, a bizarre but brilliant scientist who creates a male and female zombie in hopes of breeding a superior race. Joe Dallesandro plays the handyman who attempts to thwart the Baron's mad dream, and Monique van Vooren is the Baron's nymphomaniac wife. * 1973: Frankenstein: The True Story has Leonard Whiting as Victor Frankenstein and Michael Sarrazin playing the creature. This TV movie has a different take, borrowed from Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein. The creature starts out as a handsome man and turns hideous later on in the movie. * 1976: Victor Frankenstein (a.k.a. The Terror of Frankenstein,) a fairly faithful version of the book, starred Leon Vitali as Frankenstein. Per Oscarson played the creature. * 1981: Another Japanese version, this one animated, was Kyofu Densetsu: Kaiki! Furankenshutain (called in the U.S. simply Frankenstein,) released in 1981. * 1985: The Bride was an adaptation directed by Franc Roddam. It stars Clancy Brown as the monster, with rocker Sting as Dr. Charles Frankenstein. The plot features the Monster wandering about Europe with a tragic circus midget (David Rappaport) while the Doctor himself engages in a Pygmalion-inspired relationship with a female creation, the eponymous monster's bride played by Jennifer Beals. A love triangle between Doctor, Monster, and Bride provides the film's conflict. * 1987: The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written and directed by Fred Dekker that was released by TriStar Pictures. The film features the reunion of a number of classic movie monsters, led by Dracula and including Frankenstein's monster (Tom Noonan), The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and The Gill Man. 1990s & 2000s * 1990: Frankenstein Unbound was a science fiction movie based on the novel by Brian Aldiss and the last movie directed by Roger Corman. In it, a scientist travels back in time to meet Victor Frankenstein (Raúl Juliá) and his Creature, as well as Mary Shelley herself. * 1992: Frankenstein. Directed and written by David Wickes, this Creature was not pieced together from body parts but a clone (of sorts) of Frankenstein himself, establishing a psychic bond between Creator (Patrick Bergin) and Creature (Randy Quaid). A female creature was nearly created the same way, using Elizabeth (Fiona Gillies) as the model. * 1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also portrayed Victor Frankenstein. It featured a star cast with Robert De Niro as the monster, Tom Hulce as Henry, John Cleese as Professor Waldman, Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth, and Aidan Quinn as Captain Robert Walton. * 2004: Van Helsing. This film was a reinvention of the famous Universal stable of monsters of the 1930s and 1940s. Shuler Hensley plays the Monster who, contrary to usual practice, is directly referred to by the name Frankenstein in the film's publicity, but he is named mostly in the film as "the monster" or "the creature". The portrayal of the creature in this movie as intelligent, articulate, sympathetic, and as a hero who only wants to live, is somewhat close to the portrayal in the book. Physically, he is large and bulky, as opposed to his tall and thin portrayal in the classic films, and bears many physical features of Boris Karloff's portrayal, such as the bolted neck and flat head. He also has a visible brain and heart, which glow green and protected under glass casings, and a large engine in his left leg. He plays a vital role in the birth of Dracula's numerous offspring, the combination of his 'father's' machine that gave him life in the first place and the use of himself as a power source allowing the numerous stillborn children Dracula has conceived with his brides over the centuries to be brought to life, requiring Van Helsing to kill Dracula himself in order to stop the children. * 2005: Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove. In this film, Frankenstein's monster is resurrected to fight terrorists along with a half-fish, half-man creature. However, the plan soon goes awry. * 2006: Perfect Woman. This film, produced by Olympic Productions, is a modern spin on the tale. The plot follows a reality game show that is looking for the perfect woman to win the perfect man, played by Marcus Schenkenberg. Little do the girls know that the game show is a mask for an evil genius who is literally trying to make the perfect woman, using various body parts. * 2006: Subject Two. This film, written and directed by Philip Chidel, has a modern nanotechnology spin on the tale. The plot follows a disillusioned medical student's journey to a remote snowbound mountain location where he is met by Dr. Vic. * 2009: Army of Frankenstein, This film is directed by Richard Raaphorst, the story tells over a fight in the year 1945 between Polish and German Borderlines at the end of the Second World War.Worst Case Director Talks 'Army of Frankenstein' *2011: "Frankenstein's Wedding - Live in Leeds" - Broadcast live on BBC3, this adaptation used the romance between Victor and Elizabeth as a basis for a music drama portraying the rest of the story and was filmed live on the 19th of March 2011 at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds. The drama used popular music, such as "Wires" by Athlete, sung by Andrew Gower, portraying the Scientist, Frankenstein. Other members of the cast included Lacey Turner as Elizabeth "Liz" Lavenza and David Harewood as the Creature. Parodies and Satires * In the 1964 cartoon Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare, Frankenstein beats up both Tasmanian Devil and Bugs Bunny. * A 1965-1968 cartoon featured over-nice Milton the Monster and "Fangenstein" * In a 1968 episode of The Inspector entitled "Transylvania Mania," a smart Dracula-like character and a stupid Frankenstein-like creature try to steal The Inspector's brain to put it in a new creature the vampire is building. * The 1970 cartoon Groovie Goolies featured Franky, a friendly version of the Monster. * The Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder comedy Young Frankenstein (1974) borrows heavily from the first three Universal Frankenstein films, especially Son of Frankenstein. The production used many of James Whale's original laboratory set pieces and employed the technical contributions of their original creator, Kenneth Strickfaden. In this film, Wilder portrayed Dr. Frankenstein's supposed grandson, Frederick, and the monster was played by Peter Boyle. A Turkish remake, Sevimli Frankestayn was released in 1975. Brooks later adapted his film for musical theater. [[Young Frankenstein (musical)|The musical Young Frankenstein]] opened on Broadway in November 2007. * The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) was a musical parody of the story. In this twisted comedic tale, Dr. Frank N. Furter creates a creature for his own pleasure (named 'Rocky') and finds he cannot control the creature's lust. * Phantom of the Paradise (1975) used a Frankenstein's monster motif for the two songs, 'Somebody Super like You', when they cut off the limbs of victims and begin to create their man (Beef) of perfection, and 'Life at Last', when the man is brought to life via lightning and sings mainly about finding a woman. * Tommy (1975) had Sally Simpson marrying a green-tinged Frankenstein's monster teenage rock musician. * The 1980s cartoon Drak Pack featured Frankie, a descendant of the Monster who could assume his form as a superhero guise. * The 1982 young adult novel "Frank and Stien and Me" by Kin Platt has the protagonist meet the strange Dr. Stein and his hulking creature Frank while on the run from smugglers. In the novel Frank is described as an accident victim that Dr Stein has saved from death and rebuilt. The book features a running joke with Stein being confused by references to Frankenstein, being unfamiliar with the story. * The 1985 comedy Weird Science features two teenagers who are inspired by the original Universal movie to create an ideally attractive woman. * Frankenhooker (1990) is a parody of the Universal films in which "Jeffrey Franken" gathers body parts from various streetwalkers in order to build the "perfect" woman. This same concept was borrowed for 2006's Perfect Woman (mentioned above). * Frankencelery appears in Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, the 1993 debut episode of the Christian children's series VeggieTales. The star of Tales from the Crisper calms Junior Aasparagus with the message that he's a harmless actor named Phil Winklestein, from Toledo, Ohio. * The Tim Burton films Frankenweenie and Edward Scissorhands bear many references to the Frankenstein story. * A 2001 short film called Frankenthumb, directed by Steve Oedekerk, a parody of the James Whale 1931 film told with thumbs with superimposed faces and elaborate miniature sets. * One of the Garbage Pail Kids was a Frankenstein-like character whose name was, appropriately, "Frank N. Stein" (his alternate name was "Undead Jed"). * Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988) includes a scene in which the lead character is watching a movie called Frankenstein's Mummy (as a spoof of the 1930s sequel titles) on nighttime television. Return also features a character named Igor who parodies the "hunchbacked assistant" cliche upon his first appearance in the film. * Frank Enstein (1992) is a direct-to-video children's film about a robot named "Frank Enstein" who goes on an adventure. Television derivatives The Frankenstein story and its elements have been adapted many times for television: * The anthology series Tales of Tomorrow (1951–1953) featured a half-hour adaptation starring Lon Chaney Jr. as an atomically-animated monster. * Boris Karloff reprised his role wearing the Frankenstein monster makeup in a 1962 episode of Route 66 entitled Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing for Halloween. Also appearing in the episode were Lon Chaney, Jr. as both the Wolf Man and The Mummy and Peter Lorre. * Universal produced a television sitcom from 1964 to 1966 for CBS entitled The Munsters with Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, a character physically resembling the Universal's cinematic depiction of Frankenstein's monster, who was the patriarch of a family of kindly monsters. The rest of the family included a grandfather resembling the Universal Dracula (who may actually be Dracula), a wife that resembles "The Bride of Frankenstein", and a werewolf son. The Munsters' house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane can still be seen on the Universal Studios' backlot tour at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. * The 1965 Doctor Who serial The Chase features a sequence set in what appears to be a mysterious old house where various horror film monsters, including Frankenstein's monster, menace first the Doctor and his companions and later the Daleks. The house is subsequently revealed to be a Haunted House exhibit at an event entitled the "Festival of Ghana, 1996" * Milton the Monster (1965–1967) was a cartoon character developed shortly after The Munsters about a kind-hearted Frankenstein monster who famously "flipped his lid" (emitted steam like a whale's blowhole) when angered, and who was constantly nearly kicked out of the lab by his scheming creator. * The Gothic TV drama Dark Shadows featured a plotline running from April 1968 until December 1968 in which an artificial man named Adam is stitched together from corpses and reanimated using the life force of vampire Barnabas Collins. * The 1968 BBC-TV series Mystery and Imagination featured an adaptation starring Ian Holm as both Frankenstein and his creation. * A 1973 Universal production, Frankenstein: The True Story was more an amalgamation of various concepts from previous films than a direct adaptation of the novel. It starred Leonard Whiting as Frankenstein and Michael Sarrazin as the Creature, with a star supporting cast including James Mason, David McCallum, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Agnes Moorehead, and Jane Seymour. * Dan Curtis' 1973 adaptation had Robert Foxworth as Frankenstein and Bo Svenson as the Creature. * In an episode of Fantasy Island, Dr. Anne Frankenstein, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, visits the island to try to find out about her ancestor. A being created by the elder scientist appears, and Anne is determined to take the being with her, naively believing it will be treated with proper care in the 1980s. * A 1976 Doctor Who serial, The Brain of Morbius, has a Time Lord criminal body brought back to life by a mad scientist, using the Time Lord's brain and a body composed of various alien races who had crashed onto the planet where Morbius' brain had been stored since his defeat. * A 1979 series starring Jack Elam as a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein called "Struck by Lightning.""Struck by Lightning" (1979) * In an episode of The Superfriends, the Superfriends battle Dr. Victor Frankenstein and two of his monsters, one with all of the powers of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. * A 1984 BBC version starring Robert Powell as Victor, David Warner as his creature, and Carrie Fisher as the doomed Elizabeth. * A 1992 production for the American TNT cable network, with Patrick Bergin as Victor and Randy Quaid as his hapless creation. * "Frankenbone", a 1996 episode of the children's show Wishbone had an adaptation of the Shelley story with the canine star in the role of Victor and Matthew Tompkins as the Monster. * The 1996-98 Fox Kids series Big Bad Beetleborgs (later Beetleborgs Metallix) featured a "hulking stitched-up" character named Frankenbeans, "brought to life" by David Fletcher. The zany character owes a great debt to Herman Munster and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein. Strangely, the character is celebrated every year on the Thursday before the last Friday of October on a day called Frankenbeans Thursday.Frankenbeans Thursday * A 2004 production titled Frankenstein for the American USA Network starred Thomas Kretschmann as Victor and Vincent Pérez as his original creature, named "Deucalion" (because he was the "son" of the "Modern Prometheus". It was not a direct adaptation but a postmodern gothic reinvention set in present-day New Orleans. * As played by Phil Hartman, The Monster was also a popular recurring comedic character on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, often delivering the line, "Fire bad!" * The Monster was a recurring character on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (played by Brian Stack,) mainly in the segment "Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time" and as a Jewish character. * Buffy the Vampire Slayer has also faced "Frankensteinian" creations. In the season two episode "Some Assembly Required, the creation was a reanimated high school jock who, The season four Big Bad was Adam, a conglomeration of robot, human, and demon parts created by a government scientist in charge of a demon research facility. * A season five episode of The X-Files, "The Post-Modern Prometheus", retold the Frankenstein legend updated with genetic engineering technology. The episode, the only one of the series filmed exclusively in black and white, was inspired by the film adaptations of the legend; the creature, shunned by the mad scientist who created him, seeks a mate in a small town. * The Animaniacs episode Phranken-Runt, featuring Rita and Runt parodied both the overall Frankenstein plot and elements of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. * In the Histeria! episode "Super Writers", at the end of a sketch about Edgar Allan Poe publishing "The Raven", Mary Shelley appears (portrayed by Charity Bazaar dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein) to pitch the book to Sammy Melman. * The Cartoon Network show Robot Chicken featured a Frankenstein parody character called "Frank Enstein". * Frankenstein's monster was one of the monster trio from various skits on The Electric Company, portrayed by Skip Hinnant. * "Dr. What's-his-name," an episode of the 1975 live-action series The Ghost Busters, features a long-suffering Doctor Frankenstein whose goal is to make his gigantic, childlike Creature more obedient with the brain of "the world's most gullible fool." Spenser (Larry Storch), of course, is the world's most gullible fool... * In the 1994 animated television series Monster Force, Frankenstein's monster alias "Frankenstein" or "the Monster" becomes humanity's ally in a desperate fight against evil Creatures of the Night. * The children's animated series Arthur has an episode depicting a reenactment of the night the novel was created. Titled Fernkenstein's Monster, it was described as: "Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Fern tells a tale so scary that Arthur and the gang become afraid of her. Can Fern prove her skills as a writer and create a different story that's fun instead of frightening?" * The 2000 anime television series Argento Soma draws a large amount of inspiration from Frankenstein. The show's plotline revolves around an ambitious scientist assembling a giant silver creature from scattered components. The giant (aptly nicknamed "Frank") possesses a tender and compassionate nature but has a bizarre and hideous exterior and the potential to inflict death and destruction. * The Duck Dodgers episode "Castle High" revolved around the main character explaining to I.Q. High what had happened to his castle, the flashback based on the story. * One of Arale's classmates in Dr. Slump was named Monsuta (aka Frank). * In Dragonball, young Goku befriends a cyborg named Number 8 (whom he nicknames Ha-chan) who was similar in appearance to Frankenstein's monster. * An episode of Goof Troop had a spoof called "Frankengoof"; despite the title, the monster is a mirror image of Black Pete. * An episode of Darkwing Duck had a spoof called "Steerminator" in which dead supervillain Taurus Bulba is rebuilt into a cyborg. * An episode of The Catillac Cats has Riff Raf as a mad scientist about to be beaten up by Mungo/Frankenstein * The Moosylvania episode of Rocky and His Friends showed Boris and Natasha attempting to pass off some small Western town as Washington, D.C....and the Capitol Building is topped off with a statue of the Frankenstein Monster! * In the Scooby-Doo television movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy-Doo meet the daughters of several monsters at "Miss Grimwood's School for Girls". One of the 'girl ghouls' (as they are called in the movie) is named Elsa Frankenteen, her father being Frankenteen Sr. Frankenteen Sr. is, as an adult male, the best representation, with daughter more closely resembling Elsa Lanchester's interpretation of the Bride of Frankenstein. 'Frankenteen' is also a portmanteau of 'Frankenstein' and 'teen' because Elsa is a teenager. * There were two instances where the concept of Frankenstein's monster was used in the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series. In Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the monster Dora Frank was an obvious nod to the monster, as well as its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers counterpart, which was simply referred to as the "Frankenstein Monster". Then in Mahou Sentai Magiranger one of the main villains, Victory General Branken, was inspired by Frankenstein's Monster. Branken's Power Rangers: Mystic Force counterpart was Morticon. * In the series Kamen Rider Kiva, Dogga's race, the Franken, are an obvious nod to the monster, along with Kiva's Dogga form. * An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants called "Frankendoodle" involves SpongeBob using a human artist's "magic pencil" to create a living, evil doodle of himself. * In the Halloween special of another Nickelodeon series, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Jimmy's father, Hugh, mistakes an invention for a game he calls "Name that Monster" and is transformed into a Frankenstein's monster-like being. * In The Simpsons 2003 installment of the Treehouse of Horror series, Treehouse of Horror XIV, there is a segment entitled "Frinkenstein", whereby Professor Frink uses his universal multi-tool to resurrect his dead father, who then goes on a rampage stealing organs from others until his son is forced to kill him.In Treehouse of Horror XVIII, Bart wears a costume resembling the monster.In Treehouse of Horror XX he appears as one of the monsters at Homer and Marge`s Halloween party and in Treehouse of Horror XXI as the monster Frink created in his lab.Also in Treehouse of Horror III Lewis is wearing a Halloween costume of the monster at the Halloween party with Bart and Lisa. * A villainous alien from Ben 10 named Doctor Vicktor resembles the Frankenstein's monster, as well as the copy of him in the Omnitrix * In the original Transformers episode "Autobot Spike", Sparkplug Witwicky creates an Autobot using mismatched robot parts that he names Autobot X, but the robot is a mindless monster and goes berserk. Later, Spike Witwicky is injured and his consciousness is transferred to the giant robot body. Spike makes several direct references to the invention as a "robot Frankenstein monster". * Also, the character of Rampage in the Transformers: Beast Wars series has a great many similarities to Frankenstein's monster, especially his origins as a product of science gone horribly wrong; the main differences are his status as an irredeemable psychopath and that his body wasn't created by piecing others together. In a later episode, Megatron's cloning of Dinobot bears a strong resemblance to the creation of the monster. * In an episode of Time Warp Trio entitled Nightmare on Joe's Street, Mary Shelley accidentally draws her first impression of the monster in The Book, causing her dream to become a reality. This render of the monster is seen with patchwork-colored skin, signifying his construction from various corpse parts. * In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "Koopenstein," Bowser (under the guise of Dr. Koopenstein) plans to use Mario and Luigi's brains for a robotic Koopa Troopa he has made, but through the result of a horrific accident, he mutates into a Frankenstein's Monster-esque version of himself and proceeds to rampage through a nearby village. A live action segment from another episode features Mario and Luigi meeting Dr. Frankenstein (played by Jim Ward) and his monster, where a laboratory mishap causes Mario's brain to be switched with the monster's. * In a 15-minute episode of Sonic the Hedgehog, Rotor the Walrus, assisted by Antione, creates a robot named Ro-Becca. Antoine accidentally activates Ro-Becca and she falls in love with him. * Two segments from Braingames showed Frankenstein. One was "Splatnarnt", in which two scientists assembling a Frankenstein-like monster using interior body parts whose names were scrambled; the idea was for the viewer to unscramble the names. The other was "Whosamawhatchamacallits", in which Frankenstein was the last character portrayed in the game. * An animated segment on Sesame Street showed a mad doctor bringing to life a Frankenstein-like monster that was actually a capital letter H. * The regeneration sequence of the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, into the eighth incarnation, Paul McGann, in the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who is set in a hospital morgue. The night attendant at the morgue is watching the 1931 Frankenstein in the next room, and scenes in which the monster is brought to life are intercut with images of the Doctor's "resurrection", his appearance out of the storage room then causing the attendant to pass out. * Dr. Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster appeared in Mad Monster Party and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein. Frankenstein's Monster appeared in Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Monster Mash, and Waxwork. * An ITV modern adaptation simply titled Frankenstein was aired on 24 October 2007, where a mother uses lab equipment to try to create a "body of organs" for her dying eight year old son. * The fifth season episode of Highlander: The Series titled The Modern Prometheus has Mary Shelley draw her inspiration from two immortals battling during the long winter in the Swiss Alps. Upon seeing Byron (in the series secretly an Immortal) restored to life by lightning, she asks Methos why her child rots in her grave while Byron simply gets up and walks away. Methos admonishes her to pity their kind, for life can go on when it should not. The isolation he describes enables Shelley to write her classic. * Two animated segments from Sesame Street teaching basic geography were hosted by Dr. Geo and his Frankenstein-like unnamed assistant who would mimic everything Geo said behind his back. One segment talked about the concept of a globe and the other about mountains. * In a season 3 episode of the NBC TV series Chuck, Chuck refers to John Casey as "Trank-enstein," due to the NSA colonel's love of weaponry (in this case, tranquilizer darts) and typical brutish mannerisms. * In the Adult Swim animated series Minoriteam, the title characters frequently fought an opponent named Racist Frankenstein. * In the animated series "Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles" a boy scientist Buzz Conroy and his father Professor Conroy fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic robot named "Frankenstein Jr." who is like a mix between "Gigantor" and Frankenstein. *Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein are the father and mother of Frankie Stein in Monster High. *Frankenstein's Wedding was a live television adaptation broadcast on BBC Three on the 19th March 2011. * In an episode of the cartoon series The Venture Bros., entitled ¡Viva los Muertos!, Dr Veture reanimates the corpse of a Monarch henchman killed by Brock Samson, naming the creature "Venturestein". Other derivatives Classical and modern music * The 1962 novelty song "Monster Mash" is narrated by a Dr. Frankenstein-like character, who talks about his monster learning a new dance. * "Frankenstein" is a 1973 instrumental by the Edgar Winter Group - so named because it was constructed from bits and pieces of several different takes. * The video for Yazoo's song "Don't Go" featured a Frankenstein theme. * In the video for her 1983 song "Telephone (Long Distance Love Affair)", Sheena Easton is pursued through a haunted house by Frankenstein's monster. * In The Dead Milkmen video "Big Time Operator" lead singer Rodney is depicted as FrankenElvis. * For their 1987 single, "Doin' It All for My Baby", Huey Lewis and the News used a Frankenstein theme in a video performance. * The lyrics of T'Pau's 1987 song "China in Your Hand" reference Frankenstein.SongMeanings | Lyrics | T'pau - China In Your Hand * "Frankenstein" is a song by funk metal band Clutch from Pure Rock Fury. * "Dr. Stein", a song produced by the power metal band Helloween for their 1988 album Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2, is based on Victor Frankenstein and his monster. * Rock musician Alice Cooper recorded a song titled "Teenage Frankenstein" for his 1986 album Constrictor, and recorded "Feed My Frankenstein" for his 1991 album Hey Stoopid. The latter song was also featured in the 1992 film Wayne's World. * Electric Frankenstein is an American punk rock band from New Jersey. * Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, a horror punk band formed in North Carolina in 1996. * How I Made This, the multimedia musical composition of Ukrainian born Russian composer Evgeni Kostitsyn, won first place at the First International Competition for Composers in the Ukraine in 1998. * In Sam Cooke's song "Another Saturday Night," there is a line that goes: Another fellow told me He had a sister who looked just fine. Instead of being my deliverance, she had a strange resemblance To a cat guy named Frankenstein. * "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy" is the title of a 2000 album by the band Mindless Self Indulgence. * "Frankenstein" is a song by American Metal band Iced Earth from their 2001 album Horror Show, which features songs themed after classic movie monsters. * "Some Kind of Monster" is a 2004 song by Metallica which uses themes from Frankenstein. * "Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter" is a song by American Folk musician Space Mandino. * The Rammstein song "Mutter" is about a monster that kills its creator or mom in this case. * The musical "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" includes a song called "There's A Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" * The punk band Crass referenced Frankenstein in the song "Reject of Society". * "Dr. Frankenstein" a concept album/rock opera written by Cuban/Mexican musician Jose Fors was based on both the original novel and James Whale's films. It was released in 2009. * Toy Love released a 1980 single, "Bride of Frankenstein". * The German band Oomph!'s song "Brennende Liebe" details a sort of Frankenstein scenario, and the video features Frankenstein, his wife, and the scientist and his associates. * The rock band Glass Wave included a song about Frankenstein's monster (entitled "Creature") on their 2010 album. The lyrics are sung through the creature's voice. *Kevin Max's song "Jumpstart Your Electric Heart," from his 2005 album The Imposter is a modern-day retelling of Shelley's Frankenstein. Radio On August 3, 1931, Alonzo Dean Cole adapted the novel as a 30-minute episode of his program The Witch's Tale. It was redone on March 7, 1932 and July 17, 1935. In 1938, George Edwards produced a 13-part, 3-hour series for radio. It follows the structure and spirit of the novel closely. Two other versions were made in both 1944 and 1955. In 1945 it was adapted as a 30-minute drama on the syndicated program The Weird Circle. In 1946 it was adapted as a 30-minute drama on the program Favorite Story. Another 30-minute drama version was used on Suspense on November 3, 1952 starring Herbert Marshall and was used again on June 7, 1955 starring Stacy Harris. In 1999, the Radio Tales drama series presented an adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel for National Public Radio. Stage Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, written by Richard Brinsley Peake, was produced at the English Opera House in London in 1823. Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is an 1887 musical burlesque composed by Meyer Lutz and written by Richard Henry. A Broadway adaptation of the story by Victor Gialanella played for one performance on January 4, 1981 (after 29 previews) and was considered the most expensive flop ever produced to that date. Stitch, the main character of Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise, was somewhat influenced by the monster, as he was created by a scientist from miscellaneous alien DNA. Unlike Shelley's monster, however, his intentions were initially evil until he discovered an inner loneliness, causing him, and eventually his creator, to turn from crime to justice. Throughout the franchise, Stitch also demonstrates the monster's herculean strength and childlike curiosity. In season 3 of Beast Wars Megatron clones Dinobot, making a Frankenstein's monster out of the clone by transmetallizing him with the Transmetal Driver and adding the half of Rampage's mutant spark he cut out earlier. The result was an extremely mutated Transmetal II minion under the influence of his "half-brother's" evil. In 2006, the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived listed Dr. Frankenstein's Monster (sic) at #6. The California Medical Association, in a rather humorous gesture, chose Halloween 2006 to announce that Dr. Richard Frankenstein had been elected president of the organization. Press Releases He had previously been president of the Orange County Medical Association in 1995-1996.CMA Foundation - Richard S. Frankenstein, MD Frankenstain is a character in the Korean web-comic manhwa named "Noblesse". He, like that of the actual character Frankenstein, is a scientist, but the similarities end there. Through his research he has gained immortality and immense power. He now serves the most powerful of all vampires known as the "Noblesse" See also *Dracula in popular culture Further reading * Hitchcock, Susan Tyler. Frankenstein: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton. 2007. ISBN 978-0-393-06144-4. * Glut, Donald F. The Frankenstein Legend: A Tribute to Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff. Scarecrow Press, 1973. ISBN 978-0-8108-0589-7 References External links * * Frankensteinfilms.com - Comprehensive site on Frankenstein movies, comic books, theatre plays and the original novel * Frankenstein in Popular Culture, from the Pennsylvania Electronic Edition. * Frankensteinia: A blog "tracking Frankenstein and all things related in the arts, media and popular culture." * Frankenstein Castle - site devoted to the Frankenstein films. * Frankenstein: A New Reality - examination of the book and its influences. * Toonopedia entry on the early Frankenstein comic books. * From book to blockbuster - a comparison of the book and 1931 movie. * Marvel Comics Frankenstein Monster - Comprehensive review of Marvel's 1970s comic book adaptation. Category:Horror fiction Category:Frankenstein Category:Works inspired by Frankenstein Category:Mediamass Category:Toonpedia Category:CS:GO - WHEN PROS MAKE 10 IQ PLAYS! (STUPID AND DUMB PLAYS)